This invention relates to containers for the storage and disposal of unwanted liquids such as waste oil that has been used in cooking or used engine oil that has been removed from automobiles during changing of the oil.
The disposal of waste oil such as cooking oil which has been used for deep frying, liquid fats, suspended greases and the like in homes and restaurants, or petroleum based lubricants such as engine oil that remains after changing the crankcase or gearbox oil in automobiles, presents several problems.
More specifically, the existence of waste oils in the home, business and industry presents the practical problem of immediate disposal into a container from which the oil will not inconveniently leak or spill on site or in transit to its final disposition. Moreover, if such waste oil is allowed to flow into sewer water, sewer pipes may become clogged producing a foul odor, and cause pollution problems in terms of contamination of rivers and other waterways. Disposal or leakage of waste oil, particularly toxic waste oil, into the soil can result in ground water contamination, among other things.
Therefore, various forms of technology have been proposed to provide a way to dispose of such waste oil.
For example, devices utilizing loose granular forms of absorbents had the problem of the fine particles being dispersed during manufacturing, distribution and usage, which resulted in the device being difficult to handle.
Other methods utilizing granular absorbents enclosed in numerous individual pouches which, although able to absorb waste oil, require substantial time to do so. Therefore, these methods have the fault of waste oil potentially leaking from the container after it is supplied but before it is absorbed by the absorbent material.
Moreover, absorbent materials in filamentary form could not be mechanically placed in the container and had to be manually inserted, which resulted in problems in mass production.